Cost of a head job?

[old_man]

I hate to disagree, but if there is good compression and no oil consumption or excessive blow by and when you pull the head the cylinders are not all carboned up, I say don't mess with the rings. If you do the rings, then I say do the bearings, If you do the bearings, then do the oil pump....etc. Back with leaded gas, I would have agreed with you, but a quick valve job shouldn't hurt anything as long as the wear at the top of the stroke where the rings top out is not excessive. I say if you can catch your fingernail on it, then its time to bore and add new pistons and rings.

When I pull the head, I pour a few ounces of Xylene in each cylinder while doing the head. I do it multiple times over a day or so, it will remove the oily gunk that sticks the rings. I drain the oil and replace it before startup.

 

[treedoc]

I hate to disagree, but if there is good compression and no oil consumption or excessive blow by and when you pull the head the cylinders are not all carboned up, I say don't mess with the rings. QUOTE]

although i know nearly nothing, i agree with old man. i had a blown head gasket and a cracked exhaust manifold(among other things) about 10k miles ago(170k). i was burning a fair bit of oil. my exhaust was a nasty mixture of coolant and burned oil. however, my compression was basically perfect. turned out the oil was from my valve seals. while i had my head off i ran it through the machine shop. at this point, i am pushing my engine harder than ever and my oil consumption is zero(i have even switched to mobil 1 synthetic).
i know than conventional wisdom(and common sense) holds that a renewed top end on an aging bottom end means the death of the bottom. but for me my decision to just do the head has worked out great so far.